The data
A new report by Deloitte finds that China’s mobile users are 30% more likely to use fingerprint authentication to unlock phones and authorize mobile payments than users globally, and much less likely to use passwords.
- In 2018, 71% of users surveyed said they utilize fingerprint authorizations on their mobile devices, compared to 40% globally.
- Only 40% said they use passwords as a means of authorization, compared with 64% globally.
Why it matters
We saw a big bump in Chinese mobile manufacturers loading up phones with biometric features during 2018:
- 80% of Chinese smartphones are now equipped with fingerprint authorization, and facial and voice recognition – that’s up 35% from 2017.
All that new tech puts China ahead of the curve. Deloitte points out that China’s preference for new devices has lead to faster adoption rates of new technologies (Deloitte).
Compared to global users, Chinese users replace their mobile phones more frequently.
- 80% of Chinese users phones were purchased after 2017, while the same figure is only 58% for users globally.
- 99% of Chinese users’ existing phones were new when they bought them.
- 10% [of] global users still use second-hand mobile phones.
Sources
Deloitte China’s 《2018中国移动消费者调研》(Chinese consumers at the forefront of digital technologies: China Mobile Consumer Survey 2018), published January 23, 2019.
